Hosiery



Marc 15, 1 932. R LD. 1, 49,593

HOSIERY Filed Sept. '17, 1930 Patented Mar. 15, 1932 PATENT OFFICE PAULSCHNFELD, OF CHEMNITZ, GERMANY EOSIERY Application filed September 17,1930, Serial No. 482,559, and in Germany May 22, 1930.

The present invention relates to a method of producing hosiery of thetype provided with tops.

Hosiery, especially of three-quarter length,

having a single or double top with a jacquard or plaited pattern isknown to the art in a variety of styles, but the manufacture of it isrestricted in so far as fine-meshed hose cannot be provided with a topof coarser gauge or vice versa, at least not in a manner insuringperfect linking of both parts. This difficulty is due to theimpossibility of transferring in a satisfactory manner a fabric to theneedles of a machine having a finer or larger gauge than the fabricitself.

Attempts have been made already to transfer a fabric of a coarse gaugeto the needles of a machine of finer gauge and to link on the hose inthe usual manner. However, as

the gauge and number of loops of the fabric did not correspond to thegauge of the machine, the fabric could be transferred only imperfectlyand not Within the course so that the transferred courses ravelled andthe entire fabric or.a part thereof dropped off from the needles. Thesedrawbacks are eliminated by the invention.

According to the invention, a fine-meshed leg is linked on to acoarser-meshed top with a jacquard or plaited pattern or a coarse meshedleg to a fine-meshed top by transferring the latter at a certaindistance from its edge to the needlesof a hosiery machine in the knownmanner and by'turning back the portion in front of theneedle points sothat the top is transferred twiceso to speak. Tn this way a small pad isformed at the transfer points and thus a completely closed edge. As thistransferring manner prevents ravel- 40 ling. the top can be united withthe leg in an absolutely perfect way.

The invention is illustratedin the accompanying drawings which disclosetwo forms of application of the method.

Figure 1 is a front view ofa patterned fabric having the size of aregular top and ready to be turned at its edge to be transferred to thehose accordingjo one modification of the invention; Fig. 2, a side viewthereof; Figs.

3 and 4 indicate how the fabric with its turned double edge, accordingto Figs. 1 and 2, is transferred to the needles of the machine linkingon the leg; .Fig. 5 is a View of a patterned fabric top; Figs. 6 to 8show how the fabric is transferred to the needles of a hosiery machinein a modified way; and Fig. 9

is a View of a finished hose with partly opened double top.

Referring to the drawings, in Figs. 1, 2,

3 and 4: the fabric 1 provided with a plaited 50 or similar pattern 2and corresponding in size to ahose top has its upper edge turned back toproduce the closed edge 5 (Figs. 1 and 2) which thus consists of twolayers of fabric and is transferred to the needles 6 of a hosierymachine (Fig. 3) with the back, i. e., the small reversed portion 21,up, and the hose 7 (Fig. 4) is then worked on in the known manner. Thetransferring can take place on a transfer device, the top picked upbeing finally arranged on a transfer bar of known type by means of whichit is transferred to the needles of a hosiery machine which need bestopped only while the transfer of the top is going on so that the lossin production is not greater than in tickling off a normal double top.

According to a modified method, the fabric 1 having the plaited orsimilar pattern 2 and the sizeof the regular top is transferred with itsupper edge 3 behind the line 4 to the needles 6 of the hosiery machine(Fig. 6) whereupon the entire fabric 1 is pulled up so that the points19 of the needles 6 engage the loops 20 of the portion 21 of the fabriclying in front of the needle points (Fig. 7). As shown in Fig. 8, theportion 21 is then turned back over the needle heads. to the closed edgeof the hose. As shown in Figure 8 the portion '21 is then turned backover the .needle'heads and said portion is linked on in theusu'al'manner to form a closed edge thus completing the hose.

The second method is inferior to the first one in so far as during theraising of the fabric and the turning back of the portion 21 the points19 0f the needles 6 can be easily broken or bent, and this manner oftransferring can therefore, he carried out only by highly skilledoperators. Moreover, during the transferring process according to thismedllied method, which is qulte a tedlous affair, the entire hosierymachine must be stopped, which involves a considerable loss inproduction. To avoid this, the top might be transferred to a specialdevice, which is quite a difiieult task particularly when close goodsare concerned. Besides, the transfer of the top to the needles of ahosiery machine is no easIy work per se.

11 both cases, however, a closed edge w1ll be formed at the transferpoints of the top, owing to the turning back of the portion 21, so thatan absolutely satisfactory union of top and hose is insured.

If the top portion 1 is to be made into a double top 10, according toFig. 9, the open portion 1 must be closed by connecting the upper edge11 with the edge of the portion 21 by means of the seam 12, a solidrubber band 15 having previously been sewn to the back of the inner topportion.

If hosiery is made according to the invention, the advantages obtainedare, firstly, that a fine-meshed hose 16 can be united with acoarse-meshed top having a jacquard pattern, or vice versa,and,'secondly, that the patterned tops can be manufactured in onecontinuous band so that the pattern machine can be utilized fully andproduction becomes highly economical. A

The top may consist of patterned, singlesided, ribbed or warp goods, thelatter being particularly suitable on account of their great variety ofpatterns.

Furthermore, instead of linking the hose to the top transferredaccording to the invention, the process might be reversed and fancy'legs transferred in the manner shown, whereupon a unicolored top couldbe worked The goods 1 are folded over, and then pulled slightly upwardsso that the needles on uniting the new portion to the other strike belowthe folded-over part, to form a joint or connection that will not ravel.

I claim 1. Method of producing hosiery with tops, according to which apiece of fabric having the size of a top is transferred at a distancefrom its edge to the needles of a hosiery machine and the portion of thefabric lying in front of the needle points turned back so that the topfabric being penetrated twice by the needles of the hosiery machineproduces a closed edge on the transfer line.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1, according to which the fabric formingthe top is doubled at the edge to be transferred, transferred near theedge thus closed to the needles of a hosiery machine, and provided withthe leg and foot.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1, according to which the fabric formingthe top is transferred at a distance from its edge to the needles of ahosiery machine, pulled up to the points of the needles which penetratePAUL SCHtjNFELD.

